Red Harvest For The Holidays – Interview with Tim Williams And Mike Kennedy of Bloodsimple

by Mirak Habbiyyieh / Schwegweb.com

Schwegweb recently got a chance to sit down with Tim Williams and Mike Kennedy of Bloodsimple. Hope you all enjoy and please check out their new release Red Harevest on Warner Brothers Records.
Schwegweb: How did you come up with the name Bloodsimple?
Tim: “Mike can take that one.”
Mike: “We were fucking around with a couple names and I think at that time they were just names that to get out there and play and looking for something that would stick and the Coen brothers always huge fans of the Coen brothers, Bloodsimple was the first movie they did out of film school. The Big Lebowski, we wanted to go with that but I don’t think it would have stuck as well as Bloodsimple. That where it’s inspired from and then what the title meant the title meant, it means murderous.”
Tim: “We discovered that going into Red Harvest, Mike can take that too.”
Mike: “Yeah so I was fooling with that and Bloodsimple and found a Dashiell Hammett novel which is where the Coen brothers discovered the name also, A Murderous Rampage, it’s a really cool novel in 1929.”

How do you compare yourselves to other bands?
Mike: “Way worse.”
Tim: “Exactly, way worse.”

Do you have a label for yourselves?
Tim: “No, No we can’t, No, HELLS NO, Hells No, just a heavy band.”
Mike: “Awesome-Core.”
Tim: “Awesome-Core yeah, we’re Horrible-Core.”
Mike: “Shit-Core.”
What are you influences?
Tim: “As a vocalist it goes down the line, Jim Morrison, Phil Anselmo, Layne Staley stuff like that, I like heavier kind of stuff I can say off the top of my head.”
Mike: “The same, Metallica got me started playing, Iron Maiden, all the guitar gods, Alice In Chains these are the bands that got me into guitars and other influences from jazz music, to rock to indie to classical to some hip hop, everything there is a lot of good shit out there and a lot of crap out there too. Tim was heavily influenced by Jim Morrison on this record I’d say.”
Tim: “Yeah a little bit.”
Mike: “He had always been, when we first found Tim in high school, not first found him, we’ve been friends since we’ve been five but we first saw that Tim was starting to sing it was all Morrison stuff, so when we got in the studio with Machine.”
Tim: “It wasn’t my idea.”
Mike: “He really brought that out, it’s such a big part of Tim, you know and Tim was starting to do the narration stuff it was like something we were tapping into, this inspiration from years ago that really really can come out on this record, I think.”
Tim: “Machine helped out a lot, a lot, it was really cool.”

How was working with Machine vs. Gggarth?
Tim: “They are both great amazing amazing producers with equal talents all across the board. We’ve worked with Machine in the past and I always loved Machine, he is a good/amazing vocal producer. I haven’t come across too many people on that can match him on that level and Gggarth is amazing also he is really really well rounded and they kind of they are just like two amazing scientists that take two different approaches to their craft, you know what I’m saying. Gggarth, the first record, I don’t think that could have come out any better than it did, I think he did an amazing amazing job and I also think the band we’ve been away for so long we kind of didn’t want to go, I didn’t want to go, all the way back to Vancouver to do another record, Machine is right over in Jersey. Which was good and bad, because there is a lot of annoying things that came up because we weren’t exactly isolated in the studio, but again Machine, when it came to the vocals and everything else, amazing, you know he really really knows my voice and we know each other as people and really really brings out things that other people probably can’t. We’re really happy.”

With the release of Red Harvest have you guys began thinking of new material already?
Tim: “No, Way”
Mike: “Hells No”
Tim: “We are not worried about anything; we are just not ready to do anything else. I feel this also record for Bloodsimple, we really, at least me as a singer in a heavy world, whatever you want to call it, I pulled out every stop in the book that I could of, I am nowhere near ready to even write a new thing, yet. I need some sort of inspiration, catastrophe, whatever anything.”
Mike: “Yeah”
Tim: “This record is really ahh, I think we all really put our all into it and I think we are ready just to enjoy playing these songs, you know we’ve only played these songs for like a month, Family Values and we did shows Europe, but that’s all before the record came out. The record just coming out today, hopefully get it, buy it, burn it, whatever they do and come out to shows and just go crazy, you know.”

Do you plan on releasing any of the old demos from the first CD?
Mike: “NO, Next question.”
Tim: (Laughing) “No Way.”
Mike: “We’re moving forward not backward.”

You guys working on a DVD at all?
Tim: “I don’t know, what’s going on with the DVD? We have an entire DVD with an amazing cover and everything and it’s a really really good DVD thanks to Mike and Nick did a lot of work to it and ahh, I think it’s a really cool DVD, but for some reason its not coming out.”
Mike: “I think the label expected better production, less character; it has got a lot of character very poor production, its all like camcorder shit and like street shit.”
Tim: “Street shit, that’s what we are, we’re not some rich band, it’s what we do.”
Mike: “Even the live clips are terrible audio there’s nothing really.”
Tim: “It’s REAL”
Mike: “Usually everybody wants to put out 5.1 surround live Dolby Digital, its in Dubly, Dubly Digital, but we were like screw that, lets just do what we do, fucking funny b roll shit, lets put it out, edit it well put it out with some goofy stuff. You know, there’s a couple music videos we threw in there too so there is some real stuff for people who actually want to look at something that is not ridiculous.”
Tim: “I think it’s a really good DVD, it’s not horrible. It’s just like Mike said it’s not a super 5 start thing, but by no means, its just fun. It’s not your normal DVD, which I thought was cool angle about it, you know. Kind of, like the last DVD I saw that I thought was mildly entertaining was the Every Time I Die thing. Because it had some fucking good shit on that, its more like that and the label whatever taking forever, they are like oh lets put webisodes up, which are cool that’s fine and eventually now they are telling us they are going to put it out. But eventually in the music business, uhh I don’t know what that means. So that’s the DVD.”
Mike: “Hopefully we will get this record released with the DVD, that was the original plan. The name of the DVD is Some Kind Of Morons, it’s the best DVD cover you’re going to see in your life and it deserves to be seen, it will be up on the website soon.”

Have you figured out your drummer situation yet?
Mike: “We have.”
Tim: “I think we have actually, Devin who has played with a slue of bands.”
Mike: “We met him before Family Values through Will Hunt, who played on the record, and he is a friend of Will Hunt. Will Hunt did the tracking on the record, came out great, but he had some other endeavors to follow and Devin stepped in and is great, good attitude.”
Tim: “So I think as of now I think we solved our drummer problem. What a journey that’s been.”

VOD DVD?
Mike/Tim: “LAUGH”
Mike: “TBA Also”
Tim: “TBA, TBA”
Mike: “Calls are being dropped, that’s all I’m going to say about that.”
Tim: “Its even worse that the Bloodsimple one, we did everything and put it in peoples fucking hands, we shot it, nick helped us record it, its amazing the shows are fucking unreal it has really cool old school footage around, but the music business is a pain in the fucking ass.”
Mike: “Our manager stepped in after we filmed it and was like you’re already signed, you can’t put this out, until we figure everything out.”
Tim: “And so on and so forth, black hole of hell. So the VOD DVD is somewhere in limbo but we still plan to release it, when? We do not know, but it will be worth the wait because the shows that we captured on that shit are really ferocious awesome shows, so people I think will be into it. There will be a live CD to go along with it, which should be pretty cool.”

Are reunited shows with VOD (Vision Of Disorder) planned?
Tim: “There will be minimal shows, but nothing major. VOD, we are better off just as friends. VOD is at a point where it should just be kept fun, no business should be involved, it’s a very very be our own style band. That’s the way VOD always was, but when it got to be a business it got complicated and annoying. It’s just cool to have fun drink some beers maybe get a little cash at the end of the night from a show, that’s it that’s what VOD will be.”

Any plans to tour Australia?
Tim: “Definitely.”
Mike: “LOVE TOO.”
Tim: “Sure if that comes up, VOD went down there is 98/99; we had a lot of fun and sure if there is enough demand out there, we’ll go out.”
Mike: “I’m definitely going.”

Anyplace you want to tour, that you haven’t toured?
Tim/Mike: “South America, Good Call.”
Tim: “We haven’t been there with VOD or Bloodsimple, I’d like to definitely check that shit out, Columbia would be cool for various reasons.”
Mike: “Laughing at Tim…”

Anything else you want to add/tell to your fans out there?
Tim: “Hey man welcome back motherfuckers, here we are about to officially kick off a touring cycle with a record in tow. We are looking forward to getting out there, saying what’s up to everybody getting out of that piece of shit across the fucking street (as he points to a very worn down, beat up Winnebago). We’ve got some great responses on the Family Values run and again that was before the record came out so we are really looking forward to meeting everybody and get some serious work done. That’s about it. Cool.”

www.bloodsimpleband.com

Related

Reply

Name (required)

Email (will not be published) (required)

Website

Notify me of follow-up comments by email.

Notify me of new posts by email.

About

Schwegweb.com is here for what everyone wants, live concert photography. We bring you up-to-date concert photos, features, CD reviews and anything else that is music. Our coverage spans from California to New York and everything in between. Enjoy your stay.

Thank you for visiting and if you want to see more or have any suggestions, email us.

None of the photographs on this site may be used elsewhere without permission.